New Memoir Remembers Running Grunge Club Nights In ‘the Worst Place In The UK’

October will see the release of Sugar, Gravy, Pleasure: An indie odyssey in Peterborough by English immigrant Pete Elderkin, who moved to Tāmaki Makaurau in 2002.

Sugar, Gravy, Pleasure is part humorous memoir, part social history with contributions from others who were there. It tells the true story of The Sugar Club and how it, improbably, became one of the longest-running club nights in the UK.

Discover how alcohol saved one clubber from certain death; which legendary dance nightclub’s sound system they obtained; and which DJ fell victim to the notorious Fenland Bermuda triangle.

Sugar, Gravy, Pleasure is set over eleven years in the 1990s and early 2000s when the Grunge and Britpop scenes came out of nowhere to be at the forefront of UK music. Tony Parsons, UK music journalist and best-selling author, says:

"I loved it. A beautiful, big-hearted book; Sugar, Gravy, Pleasure is a love letter to a lost time when music was at the centre of the universe."

Sugar, Gravy, Pleasure details the ups and downs of being in the wrong place and time while trying to DJ and run an alternative music club in a hostile, provincial environment.

UK reviewer and music fan Sally Booth says “You don’t have to have been to any of the Peterborough club nights or gigs to enjoy the book, you just need to have felt that you didn’t fit in, or have had the music of those eras as a soundtrack to your life …

“It’s a must-read for any fan of any music genre (unless it’s 5 star) and I guarantee you’ll find something in there that resonates with you.”

Another reviewer writes that “This book transported me back to my youth, living in Peterborough, feeling like an outsider with my passion for obscure music choices and fashion sense … UNTIL I found my people at The Shamrock and a whole new world opened.

“I loved that club despite sticking to the floor (snake bite and black is soooo sticky) and having to hold the toilet up while you went for a pee … Thanks for this trip down memory lane.”

Elderkin explains how he came to write Sugar, Gravy, Pleasure:

“A couple of years ago my home city Peterborough had just been awarded the accolade of ‘Worst place to live in the UK’ for the third time in a row – and has since won the title again.

“That inspired me to write about my own times in Peterborough; partly to set the record straight and partly out of badness, I suppose. I love my home city and I wouldn’t have had the resilience I have coming from anywhere else. I have pride in our place.”

Sugar, Gravy, Pleasure will be released in Aotearoa in October 2024 and will be available in paperback, ebook and audiobook.

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